The Financial Times of London reports that British Bank Barclays is actively looking for a suitor for its South African unit, Absa, after the recent merry-go-round at the country’s foreign ministry.
The publication ran an article on Wednesday under the headline,Barclays considers scaling back in Africa, saying that the bank was rethinking its near-century long presence in Africa as part of a review led by Jes Staley, its new chief executive.
It added that the review comes after investor confidence in South Africa was shaken by President Jacob Zuma’s decision to change his finance minister twice in less than a week when the economy is under severe stress.
Meanwhile, Moody’s Investors Service says its changing the outlook on its Baa2 local and foreign currency credit rating for South Africa from stable to negative.
Moody’s cited persistently weak growth and the growing risk of fiscal slippages as well as political pressures when it announced the change on Wednesday.
The Moody’s rating is still a notch above Fitch’s newly assigned BBB- foreign currency credit rating with a stable outlook and one notch above Standard & Poor’s BBB- foreign currency credit rating with a negative outlook.
Both Fitch and S&P revised South Africa’s credit ratings downwards on the 4th of December.
